Eagles linebacker Connor Barwin, who led the NFC last year with 14½ sacks, restructured his contract, a league source said.
The team hasn’t made an official announcement, but Barwin thanked team management on his Twitter timeline Wednesday and wrote he’s “not going anywhere.”
Barwin signed a six-year deal with the Eagles in free agency two years ago worth an average of $6 million annually that included a $3 million signing bonus.
The extension, according to the source, will not lower his cap number in 2015 but rewards Barwin, who made the Pro Bowl, over the remainder of his deal. Barwin, 28, is signed through 2018. According to an ESPN report, the deal added $750,000 to the last three years of Barwin's deal and guaranteed his $6.4 million in his 2015 base salary along with $3 million of his 2016 base salary.
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Barwin is now slated to make $6.75 million in 2016 (with $3 million guaranteed), $7.75 million in 2017 and $9.25 million in 2018. Barwin's job wasn't in jeopardy, so the guarantee of his 2015 base salary isn't much of a bonus. The guaranteed $3 million of his 2016 base salary makes it more likely he'll be retained that year even though he'll turn 30.
The Eagles recently re-signed outside linebacker Brandon Graham, a career backup, to a deal worth about $6.5 annually, so it made sense that the Eagles would bump Barwin’s pay to reflect his Pro Bowl season and his stature as the team’s most productive outside linebacker.